One way to end the 'mommy wars'

By Kelly Wallace, CNN

Updated 3:57 PM ET, Fri May 30, 2014

Photos: End the Mommy Wars15 photos

End the Mommy Wars – This group of Connecticut moms wants the sniping and competition between mothers to end, so they created the photo project "End the Mommy Wars." Click through the gallery to see some of the divergent mothering choices they've made -- and made peace with.

The site first got attention with a campaign in 2012 celebrating women's post-baby bodies

I can clearly remember that first moment I felt like a foot soldier in the "mommy wars."

Six years ago, in between news assignments, I raced to catch my then-2-year-old daughter's gymnastics class. It was Parents' Day, which meant all of us moms and a few dads gathered to "ooh" and "ahh" at what our future Olympians had learned so far. But then class was over and I had an interview I had to dash off to, something not many toddlers would easily accept.

My daughter cried her eyes out and clung to my body. As I had to gently pry her arms off me and make my exit, I noticed all the moms staring at me -- or rather glaring.

Their eyes said it all. "How could you leave your daughter?" "I would never do that to my child."

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As the tears began to flow on my way back to the office, I felt guilty, but also angry.

"Why all the judgment?" I thought to myself, but I knew I was guilty of some of that same judgment from time to time. It's not something to be proud of -- those moments, for instance, when you see what a mom is feeding her child and think, "I would never give that to my daughters."

Mommy. Wars.

Just writing those words makes me cringe, but they're real to some extent, and they stem from, I believe, deep insecurities that all moms feel, especially when we compare ourselves to moms around us.

That's the thinking behind a fabulous photo spread aptly titled "End the Mommy Wars" on the site Connecticut Working Moms, which first went viral last year, and continues to pop up. Women hold signs with messages such as "Let's love more & judge less." Hear hear to that!

"The message really resonates with people because ... nobody likes to feel judged," said Michelle Noehren, 32, the site's founder and manager. "They're tired of this negativity."

In another, one mom touts she practices "peaceful parenting," while another mom admits to sometimes yelling at her child.

"We wanted to take those (topics) and say, 'Hey, we're all people. We're all equals, and no one is better than someone else and we don't know why other people make the decisions that they do, so what's the point in judging that?" Noehren said.

CNN's Kelly Wallace says six years later, she remembers the moment she felt like "a foot soldier in the 'mommy wars.' "

Judgment-free motherhood is a wonderful concept, but I can hear the skeptics now saying it's about as likely to happen as losing weight by eating daily hot fudge sundaes.

"It's a journey for everyone. It's a journey for me. I still find myself judging other mothers," said Noehren, "but I think the difference is that now when I realize I'm judging somebody, I realize it and I'm like, 'Ooh, I don't like the thought I'm having. I'm going to just not follow that thought and go down a negative mental spiral and instead just remember that every mom is doing the best that (she) can.' "

"The only thing that we can control is our own mind," she said. "We can't control what other people are doing in their life so we can choose to let go of those negative thoughts when we have them and that's really, I think, the key to becoming a less judgmental person."

Another way? Listening to other women's stories and realizing we all have our challenges -- whether we stay at home or work outside the home, breastfeed or formula feed, buy fast food or organic, choose home school or public school or private schools.

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